


School Uniforms

by braingunk



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Because it's full of secrets, Biology teacher Edward, Character tags and relationship tags will probably be added as I go, English teacher Oswald, F/M, Gotham Academy AU, Groundskeeper Alfred, I just like the Wombats ok don't judge, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, PE teacher Jim Gordon, Private School, Sad Bruce, Skipping Class, Slow Burn, Supportive Alfred, Why is Selina Kyle's hair so big?, bamf fish mooney, finding a seat in the staff room is like something out of mean girls, student bruce wayne, student jerome valeska
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-11-17 02:12:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11265804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braingunk/pseuds/braingunk
Summary: For a school that was meant to be so prestigious, Gotham Academy had far too much blackmail, feuding and general pettiness amongst the staff. Oh, and there was that one time Jerome Velaska tried to burn down the gym. With Bruce Wayne inside it.A Gotham high school AU in which everyone is either a pupil or member of staff at Bruce's very expensive private school, which really ought to be a calm and professional environment. (Spoiler: It's really, really not.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there!! This fic was a combination of thoughts from this post: http://ryandaliass.tumblr.com/post/161845917734/ and the conversation that followed with awkward-dragons on tumblr!!
> 
> This fic is about the lives of some of Gotham Academy's most notable staff and students throughout what might be the school's most hectic year in recent history. Each chapter will probably focus on a different character or group of characters, but overall the chapters progress chronologically throughout the year.
> 
> The title comes from the Wombats song of the same name.

Jim had arrived at Gotham Academy on his first day with plenty of time to find his way to the staff room and make small talk with some of the colleagues he hadn’t been introduced to yet. Whilst looking around the school, he had met most of the PE staff who he would be working with, as well as the principal and his two vices. To Jim, Mr. Falcone had seemed like a fair principle who carried an air of importance- which made sense, as his school was where the Gotham elite had attended, and sent their children in turn.

It was not just the principal who was befitting of the school’s prestigious image, however. The exterior of the school building truly fit its prestigious reputation: a looming, white building adorned with pillars and large, freshly cleaned windows shining in the morning sun. Being on the outskirts of the city meant that the school’s sprawling grounds and buildings were probably the cleanest part of the city. The large amounts of money donated by past pupils probably didn’t hurt either.

As he walked up the steps leading up to the main building, Jim heard the footsteps of a person behind him. He paused and turned around to see another man slowly climbing up the steps, limping. Across his shoulder he’d slung a bulging satchel that looked rather heavy, if the way he was leaning to maintain his centre of gravity was anything to go by. He was rather short and from Jim’s position several steps higher, he couldn’t see the man’s face - only his oddly spiked black hair.

            “Excuse me?” Jim asked. The man’s head snapped up and, after a moment, he smiled at Jim. It didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “Would you like a hand with your bag?” Jim regretted asking almost immediately as the man’s forced smile seemed to grow thinner and even less appealing.

            “Thank you for the offer but I’m perfectly alright friend.” His voice was venomously cheerful.

“Jim Gordon, the new PE coach.” Jim extended a hand, thinking that a change in subject might be ideal. The man regarded Jim suspiciously for a moment before simpering and taking his hand.

            “Oswald Cobblepot, English Lit. And language for the younger years, of course.” Jim nodded in understanding and the two walked up the stairs in relative silence. When they reached the doors, Jim held it open for Oswald, turning to speak to him once more.

            “Are you headed to the staff room? I’m not sure where I’m going just yet.” Oswald nodded.

            “Of course.”

Oswald led Jim through the entrance, where they were offered a clipboard by a woman called Kristen to sign in with. Despite the fact that term hadn’t actually started yet, she looked exhausted. When Jim handed it to Oswald, he scanned the list of previous names and sighed tiredly. After filling in his own details, he handed it back to her with a thank you and began walking along the main corridor that Jim was fairly certain ran most of the way through this floor of the school. Jim heard him muttering something about ‘always ending up sitting next to Edward’, and then in an even more resentful tone something about ‘dumb riddles’. Jim didn’t ask.

Oswald made his way to the staff room, already in a sour mood at the thought of having to sit through Edward’s riddles for another year. Kristen Kringle had seemed rather unhappy this morning too, almost certainly because Edward had been hounding her again. It was a well-known fact around school that he had a rather large crush-slash-obsession with the poor woman. Oswald wondered absently if this would be the year she got some form of restraining order against him. In reality, Edward was harmless - he just had a tendency to be overbearing and constantly spew pointless riddles. Most of Edward’s reputation wasn’t truly deserved, but his status as a biology teacher who was particularly fond of dissections coupled with his tendency to follow Kristen around during his free periods had led to certain pupils spreading rumours about him being some kind of serial killer.

On the other hand, many pupils just felt that he was extremely frustrating to be taught by due to his tendency to answer questions in riddles. (Admittedly, Oswald felt he deserved that part of his reputation much more.)

Oswald glanced over his shoulder at Jim Gordon who was looking around the corridor as they walked, clearly trying to familiarise himself with his new surroundings. Whenever it was possible, Oswald tried to avoid speaking to the PE staff. They tended to have far too few brain cells for intelligent conversation and reminded Oswald far too much of playground bullies. But Jim Gordon seemed... alright. He certainly seemed much less boisterous than most of the other sports staff.  Then again, Oswald was sure that any chance of friendship would disintegrate once he learnt of the awful ‘Penguin’ moniker that the deputy head, Maroni, had thought of. Despite Oswald’s rather vocal dislike of it, it had stuck, as Maroni’s loud and consistent use of it had caused it to spread quickly amongst staff and students alike. Even Edward, who was generally isolated from the other staff had caught on and had taken to informing Oswald of random penguin-related facts whenever they were in close proximity.

At this point in Oswald’s rather gloomy train of thought, they arrived outside the staff room. Oswald pushed the door open and saw that, of course, the only available seat was next to Edward.

“Jim! Over here!” Harvey Bullock called, waving his hand to catch Jim’s eye. Oswald felt the man brush past him to a seat that was currently being unloaded from the bags that covered it. Oswald clenched his jaw. Nobody had ever cleared a space for him on one of the blue chairs that were dotted around the staff room. Granted, he didn’t want to sit sandwiched in between Harvey Bullock and Tom Dougherty, but nor did he particularly want to listen to Edward’s endless stream of riddles and penguin facts.

With a resigned sigh, he approaches Edward.

“Good morning Mr. Cobblepot.” Edward said with a smug looking smile. Sliding into the seat beside him, Oswald smiled at him with the most uninviting way he could manage.

            “Good morning, Edward.”

            “Did you know,” Edward began, “That male emperor penguins keep their eggs warm by balancing them on their feet?” Oswald glared at Edward, who was smiling like he’d just made a hilarious joke. Oswald looked around the room in an attempt to spot somewhere else he could sit. Of course, the effort was futile. All the other seats are full. Distantly, Oswald hopes that there are no other new staff for their sake, or else they might end up sitting on the floor. Edward continues to talk. Suddenly sitting on the floor doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Across the room, he spies Jim Gordon who’s already looking completely at home in the sporting staff, like he’s been there for years. And Oswald’s stuck here with _Edward Nygma_ , who is only interested in three things: riddles, Kristen Kringle and traumatising children with frog dissections.

Oswald could already tell that it was going to be a hellishly long year.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we meet Selina Kyle (the school's gossiper), who meets Bruce Wayne (the school's topic of gossip), who meets Alfred Pennyworth (the school's groundskeeper who doesn't care about gossip at all and only wants to be a nice person).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two! I'm going to aim to upload every other week I think?

On the first day of the school year, the rumour mill was buzzing with news: Bruce Wayne was back in school.

 

Of course, Selina Kyle was already fully aware of this. Being one of school’s two most prominent suppliers of gossip, she was in the business of knowing about whatever was happening around school well in advance of everyone else. Thomas and Martha Wayne’s unfortunate deaths and their son’s subsequent dropping out of school were well known amongst all the students. What was unknown by most pupils - at least until Bruce Wayne had been seen being driven into school that morning - was that Bruce had planned to return after the summer holidays and being absent for half a semester.

 

“So, Cat, what do you know about the Wayne kid?” Sunny asked. He was a textbook bully - a thuggish build and very few braincells. She watched silently as he lit a cigarette and brought it to his lips, leaning on one of the ventilation shafts sticking out of the roof. Sunny’s smoking habit would certainly land him a suspension at a school like Gotham Academy. In fact, the habit was something that Selina routinely held over him. Selina Kyle wasn’t a snitch - up until the moment it benefited her more to talk then to stay quiet. If she ever felt like Sunny was genuinely threatening her, she wouldn’t hesitate to report him.

 

Currently, however, he was one of her most frequent ‘customers’, as Selina’s information on the various goings on around school helped him to compensate for his lack of brain cells making him incapable of piecing anything together on his own. So, she tolerated his presence and received multiple test cheat sheets (as well as a fair sum of hard cash) out of it.

 

Sunny slowly exhaled, a thin line of smoke dissipating into the sky.

 

Selina shrugged. “I don’t know anything you don’t know about Wayne, Sunny. Maybe you should ask someone else.” He scoffed, turning towards her and puffing out his chest menacingly.               “Don’t give me that Cat. You know all about him, I bet. I just want to pay him a visit. There’s some people around here who might want to take advantage of a kid like Bruce Wayne. Beat him up and stuff, you know? It’s not like he’s got any parents he could tell. He could probably do with a bodyguard.” Selina shot him a scathing look.

 

“I assure you I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I do not require a thug to follow me around and fight my battles for me.”

 

Sunny and Selina both spun around.

 

Bruce Wayne held himself with his chin tilted upwards and his shoulders back. It was that regal posture that screamed ‘Gotham Elite’. Bruce, however, was far too young and small to seem intimidating. Similarly, his wide eyes, accentuated by heavy bags, made his neutral expression seem more fearful than calm.

 

“Also, smoking on school premises is illegal.” Sunny sneered at Bruce, sauntering towards him and puffing out final, long drag of smoke in his face. Bruce fought the urge to blink rapidly, his eyes watering a little from the smoke.  
                “Whatever.” Sunny grunted, dropping the stub of his cigarette on the ground and stepping on it with his worn leather shoe. “I’ll see you around, Cat. And you’d better watch your back, Wayne.”  
                “I’ll try to bear that in mind.” Bruce said, watching as Sunny left the roof.

 

Selina made to follow him, but was stopped by a gentle hand on her arm. Jerking it towards her chest she spun around.  
                “Do you mind?” She hissed at Bruce. He blinked in surprise.  
                “My apologies, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” He said quietly.  
                “I’m not uncomfortable! I just don’t want some weird kid grabbing me.”  
“I’m sorry. I only meant to thank you. For not telling him about me. I saw you out side Falcone's office on the day I had my meeting with him.”

 

“Yeah well, you thanked me. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shot Bruce a glare. “Hanging around outside the principal's office during class time could get me suspended.” A look of understanding past over Bruce’s face.

                “My eyes must have been playing tricks on me. I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything.”

                “Whatever.” Selina began walking towards the door to exit the roof once more. This time Bruce watched her go.

 

Once she had left, Bruce walked towards the edge of the roof and peered down over the ledge. His stomach swooped.

                “Oi! What the bloody hell are you doing up here? It’s time you went to class young man!” An angry sounding voice called across the roof. Bruce turned around. Alfred Pennyworth, the school’s groundskeeper (not the bloody janitor, thank you very much) was glaring at him. When Bruce’s eyes met his, they softened a little. “You must be-”

                “Bruce Wayne, yes.” Alfred opened his mouth to speak again, but Bruce got there first. “Please do not treat me with pity because my parents…” Bruce’s voice cracked a little and he cleared his throat.

 

A conflicted expression passed over Alfred’s face. He looked at Bruce thoughtfully for a moment.

 

“How’s about we make a deal, eh? I’ll let you stay up here if you pass me the tools I need to fix the grate that’s come loose over that vent.” He smiled at Bruce, warm and genuine. “And that’s not because I pity you, it’s because I got shot.” His eyes glimmered with amusement.

                “You were shot?” Bruce’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

                “I did indeed, Master Bruce. And having someone around to lift things for me would be very handy indeed. I can’t bend much further than this,” Alfred demonstrated reaching for something on the ground, “Without my back acting up. The only person I’m taking pity on is myself.” He winked conspiratorially, and Bruce’s lips twitched into a small smile. Alfred saw it as a personal victory.

 

For the next forty minutes, Bruce passed Alfred the tools as and when he needed them. Bruce found that he rather enjoyed Alfred’s company. It was relatively quiet other than the sounds of the metal clattering as Alfred readjusted it. As time went on, he began grumbling about ‘Bloody Selina Kyle crawling through the vents like some kind of spy from a TV show’ and how she’d ‘get herself stuck one these days, mark his word’.

 

Once the work was done, Alfred had taken a step back and surveyed his handiwork. “Not too shabby if I do say so myself.” He murmured to himself before turning to Bruce. “Thank you for the help Master Bruce, but don’t let me catch you skipping class again.” Bruce nodded.

 

As Bruce left the roof, Alfred watched him go. He seemed a little happier now, and Alfred regarded that as a personal victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Alfred was my favourite character to write so far?? He's just such a nice person?? 
> 
> The next chapter will be about Ed and Oz again, if anyone's wondering! Thank you for reading!!


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward tries to help with mixed levels of success, Oswald's darkest secret is revealed and Kristen just wants to do her job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to awkward-dragons again for helping me write this chapter!!

Soon after their birth, ducklings imprint on whatever larger animal they first see and from that point onwards follow them around. Kristen Kringle often wondered if something similar had occurred when she’d attempted to make friends with Edward Nygma when he had joined the staff two years ago. She would have much preferred the ducklings.

 

“Good morning Miss Kringle.” Edward smiled. Kristen attempted to return the gesture before trying to walk as quickly into her office as she could in the hopes that Edward wouldn’t follow her. She didn’t want to be cruel, only she had a lot of paperwork she needed to get done this morning and Edward had a tendency to hover.  
“I rearranged some of your files - for ease of finding things, of course. See, rather than having them in alphabetical order-”  
                “Nygma.” She looked around her office. This was Edward's other bad habit.  “I asked you not to move things around in here. I knew exactly where everything was.”

 

Edward frowned as if he didn’t understand what was wrong. Kristen sighed, already feeling exhausted. It was impossible for someone whose job revolved around knowing the whereabouts of large volumes of paperwork to do said job when they _didn’t know where the large quantities of paperwork were_.  
                “This system will be a vast improvement though-” She shook her head.  
                “No, it won’t Nygma! A new system is pointless if I don’t know where anything is.” She didn’t mean to raise her voice, but she was feeling somewhat panicked at the thought of Vice Principal Mooney coming down to her office to have yet another discussion on the importance of organisation.

 

She needed several more cups of coffee.

 

                “My apologies, Miss Kringle, it wasn’t my intention to distress you.” Edward stammered. He did at least have enough decency to look apologetic. “If you would allow me to help you return everything to how it was-”  
                “No!” Kristen snapped. At the sight of Edward’s crestfallen face, she felt a pang of guilt and made an effort to speak in a calmer voice. “No thank you. Please just leave.”

 

She watched as Edward shuffled out of her office. She didn’t mean to be hard on him, but in the previous two years he’d waited until the second semester to move all of her stuff around. By then, she’d had enough time to prove to Mooney that she was continuing to be a valuable member of the staff. If she got behind this early in the year, there was no doubt that the vice principle would be watching her like a hawk all year long. Miss Mooney was terrifying and ran a tight ship with the staff. If she caught wind of anything that might stop the school from running like a well-oiled machine, then that thing would be removed. Fired, most likely. Needless to say, Kristen did not want to be that thing.

 

As Edward left Kristen’s office, he saw Oswald furiously scribbling his name on the sign in sheet on the front desk. He had a stack of papers at his feet and a look like thunder on his face.  
                “Good morning Mr-”  
                “Out of my way Edward! I don’t have time to talk right now.” He snapped. Between the slightly crazed look in his eye and the papers, Edward thought it was safe to assume he had some last-minute homework to mark. He watched in silence as Oswald picked up his stack of papers and stormed down the corridor towards the English department. Edward watched him go.

 

Upon entering the staff room, Edward poured himself a cup of tea and sat down in his usual seat. He waited.

 

And waited.

 

It seemed there was very little to do whilst everyone around him was busy talking to one another. He listened to the general chatter of the room, picking up snippets of various conversations and picking at a loose thread on his chair. After his failed attempt to improve Miss Kringle’s organisation (which wasn’t _really_ a failure, as the system he’d employed did make sense), he rather wanted to have a friendly conversation with someone.

 

Unfortunately, the only person who Edward spent time with was holed up in his office, undoubtedly scowling at papers he’d been emailed by students at eleven o’clock last night that needed to be marked in the next twenty-four hours. Edward was glad he wasn’t one of Oswald’s students; he was famously strict with his punishments when he was in a bad mood. The fact that he was in no way a morning person _and_ had skipped his usual coffee in the staff room would certainly make things worse for them.

 

The idea came to Edward suddenly, a simple and obvious solution that would kill two birds with stone. He stood up, grabbing is cup of tea and his bag for the day.

 

Oswald was midway through marking the homework he had set over the summer that some students has managed to procrastinate doing for not only the entire holiday but also the first week of school when there was a timid knock at his classroom door. He grimaced before calling out in his most polite and venomous tone, “Come in.”

 

With a creak, the door opened to reveal Edward Nygma. Oswald suppressed the urge to bang his head against the wall and instead forced his lips into a smile.

“My apologies. I need to get these papers marked by second period today, I do not have time-”  
                “I brought you some coffee?” Edward said, gesturing with the mug in his left hand. Oswald stared at him suspiciously. Edward looked like he wanted to fidget with his glasses, but with a mug in each hand, he settled for shuffling his weight for foot to foot nervously. “Black with two sweeteners, like you normally have, only you try to hide the fact that you don’t take your coffee plain black. I’m just good at noticing things, especially since we sit together almost every morning.” Edward became aware that he was babbling slightly and closed his mouth. Oswald stared at him. He held out the mug. Oswald looked deep in thought for a moment.  
                “Well I suppose you can come in then.” He muttered, although his words had lost most of their usual venom.

 

Edward handed him his mug and Oswald took a cautious sip. It tasted… Fine. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t the greatest coffee he’d had in his whole life - at the end of the day it was still the same cheap brand that the staff room was supplied with. When Oswald looked up, he saw Edward hovering at the front of the room, his bag still slung over his shoulder and his own steaming mug still held in his right hand.  
                “Thank you, Edward.” Oswald said, a little confused by his own genuineness. “If you want to sit down feel free. Just please don’t talk to me whilst I’m working.” Edward nodded and sat down behind one of the desks. Oswald was certain that he would not be able to sustain silence for a prolonged period of time, but it was only polite to offer someone a seat after they’d brought you a mug of coffee in the morning. Or at least, he presumed it was. He didn’t really have much experience with people performing such gestures for him.

 

Much to his surprise, however, he found that Edward was… Quiet. When he looked up from the paper he was marking he saw that Edward sipping his tea and staring at a Sudoku puzzle in a small book he'd pulled out of his bag. He caught Oswald’s eye and smiled. Oswald felt himself smiling back before he turned back to the sloppily written paper in front of him.

 

After a while, Edward cleared his throat. “It’s nearly time for registration, should I return the mugs to the staff room?” Oswald drained the last of his now lukewarm coffee and nodded.  
                “Thank you for the coffee Edward.” He stood up and handed the other man his mug. As he left, Oswald sighed and returned to his - thankfully smaller - stack of unmarked paper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading!   
> The next chapter will introduce Jerome, aka Class Clown, aka That One Kid™
> 
> I'm going away on holiday soon so the next couple of chapters might not be uploaded as regularly as I've been aiming for, sorry!


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jerome bunks off, Both Harley and Bruce do their best, and Fish Mooney could definitely kill a man with just a look. So just a normal day at school, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay!!! I had writers block for ages and I was so busy all summer... I'm going to try and get back on schedule, but I might end up posting once a month if school's too much :/

Any student of Gotham academy could tell you what Earth’s greatest mystery was - and it had nothing to do with the Stonehenge or Bermuda Triangle. It was, in fact, the mystery of how Jerome Valeska had managed not to get expelled from school yet.

There was not a person at the school who didn’t know of Jerome’s reputation, although nobody _really_ knew him personally, with the possible exception of Harleen ‘Harley’ Quinzel. Last year, Harley had gotten stuck with sitting next to Jerome in biology (certainly not a role for the faint of heart), and hadn’t really found herself intimidated by him. Jerome was mostly pomp and big talk, and was actually a good lab partner at times - although admittedly these times tended to solely occur when dissections were involved. Luckily, as they had Mr. Nygma for a teacher, Jerome got to show off his lab partner-ing capabilities roughly once a fortnight. When other teachers had learnt that Harley could be sat next to Jerome without repeatedly bursting into tears, laughter, some horrible combination of the two, or having her grades drop severely, the two were moved together in all of the classes they shared.

This lead the two to where they were now: sitting at a table in the library, Harley stooped over her Chemistry textbook and Jerome watching the Phys. Ed class that he was currently skipping performing shuttle runs. Jerome had participated in the class at least once each semester last year. The presence of Mr. Gordon, the new coach, had made him decide it really wasn’t worth it. Gordon was one of those young teachers who took their job way too seriously and didn’t tolerate anyone skipping his classes.

“Come on, J, if you’re going to sit here at least do some work rather than watching other people suffer.” Harley pleaded, glancing up from her textbook. Jerome merely scoffed. Shaking her head, Harley pushed her glasses back up her nose and underlined something in her book in pencil. “You know Gordon’s a real piece of work. When he catches you one of these days he’ll have you running laps for days.” Jerome put a hand to his chest in mock hurt.  
                “Why, Miss Quinzel, do you think so lowly of me that I wouldn’t have planned for that eventuality?” Jerome didn’t care about detentions, but he detested running laps and so had taken extra precautions to ensure that Gordon wouldn’t catch him out of class.  
                “What have you done now?” Harley asked, managing to sound both curious and resigned. Before Jerome could answer, the library door swung open with a quiet swish, and in padded Selina Kyle. Harley followed Jerome’s line of sight to see Selina, who was quietly walking towards their table. As she approached, Selina nodded at Harley in greeting before turning to Jerome.

She crossed her arms, and waited. Jerome rolled his eyes and slid her five dollars. Selina raised her eyebrows. “That’s half as much as I asked for. I charge double for monitoring people during class time.” She said. Jerome bared his teeth at her in the most intimidating (and slightly unhinged) way he could manage.  
                “Well Miss Kyle, I’m afraid I don’t have any more money.”  
                “Jerome.” Harley scolded. The other two both turned to look at her. “I know for a fact you stole twenty bucks out of Mr.Bullock’s wallet this morning.” Jerome pouted.  
                “I was saving it to buy fireworks. To set off in the staff room.” There was a soft thud as Harley smacked her head on the table.

With a sigh, Jerome handed another bill over to Selina who pocketed it. “Gordon sent Mooney to find you. She’s probably well on her way now. Your safest bet is probably to head down the English corridor.” Much to Harley’s surprise, Jerome had gone extremely pale - more so than usual.

The thing about Vice Principle Mooney was that she was not the kind of woman you’d want to piss off.

Ever.  
  


Not even if you were Jerome Valeska.

Selina and Harley watched as Jerome’s lazy posture went stiff for a minute. Then suddenly, Jerome was on his feet, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Well Harley, darling I’m afraid I must be off.” Jerome said as he swept into a deep (and wholly unnecessary) bow before jogging out of the library, strands of his carefully gelled hair falling out in disarray as he did so, and his books swinging precariously around inside his still unzipped bag.

Harley let out a relieved sigh, because although Jerome had grown on her, he was still exhausting to entertain for long periods of time.  
                “How do you do it? He’s…” Selina shook her head. Harley shrugged.  
                “He’s fine once he settles down, honestly.” Harley insisted. The look Selina shot her suggested she really didn’t believe her.

 

Jerome ran down the English corridor, looking over his shoulder to check that Mooney hadn’t caught up with him yet. The corridor behind him was empty, and he began to laugh - only to be abruptly cut off as somebody smacked into him, pushing all the air out of his lungs. Jerome wobbled backwards, pens and notebooks clattering to the floor from his still open bag.  
                “My apologies, I should have been watching where I was going.” The person murmured, and Jerome watched a dark head of hair lean down and begin to pick up Jerome’s pencil case. As they picked up his sketchbook, they froze as they read Jerome’s name written on the front in large block letters. The boy looked up, eyes wide. Jerome grinned like a fox.  
                “You must be Bruce Wayne.” Jerome extended a hand, relishing in the shocked look on Bruce’s face. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Regarding Jerome’s hand with deep suspicion Bruce stood up, trying to school his features.  
                “Likewise.” He said, dropping Jerome’s things into his hands, before attempting to walk around him. Jerome stepped back in front of him, and Bruce gritted his teeth. “Please move out of my way.” Bruce locked eyes with Jerome, staring at him defiantly. Curiosity spiked in Jerome; there were very few students at Gotham academy who weren’t afraid to stare him in the eye for a prolonged period of time, even the ones who laughed at his jokes.

Jerome opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, a sound echoed down the silent corridor. They both froze instinctively, as any student of the Academy would if they had heard that noise.

It was the unmistakable sound of Ms. Mooney’s heels hitting the floor.

Jerome took off immediately in a sprint, and Bruce watched him go in a daze.  
                “Mr Valeska, if I find you at the end of this corridor I will personally see to it that you don’t have a single free period for the rest of the year.” Ms. Mooney said as she turned the corner, just as Jerome disappeared out of sight. Bruce ducked next to one of the lockers lining the corridor and pretended to open it as Ms. Mooney walked past, offering him a brief “And you’d better get back to class young man.” as she passed.

Warily, Bruce watched her go, feeling extremely glad that he was not on the receiving end of the disapproving glare she was shooting in the direction that Jerome had gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to Daniel for not only putting up with my roodness but also helping me keep Harley relatively in character (I am a fake fan who has never read a comic in my life). 
> 
> There's actually a missing scene here - one where Selina and Harley chat about their mutual friend, Ivy Pepper. I cut it out because it really messed with the flow of the story, but I might add it in as a mini chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> So huge thanks to awkward-dragons because without their message, I probably wouldn't have ever gotten round to writing this!!
> 
> Fun fact: This is saved on my drive as "*aggressively hums the wombats*" because "Gotham Teachers AU" would have made far too much sense.


End file.
